applications. These airships were to embody many of the innovative features eventually seen in the AD500 and Skyship 500/600, including vectored thrust and the use of modern materials such as Kevlar. Negotiations were stated to be in process with the governments of Peru, Ecuador and Nigeria concerning sales of such airships. In May 1976 article, it was reported that Multi-Modal Transport Analysis (an associate firm to AD: the one covering marketing, the other technical matters – in total "a dozen people working full-time" on the project), had signed contracts with the Venezuelan company Aerovision for the construction and delivery in 1977 of an initial airship, with a further 21 ("of similar design to the first ship, but...vary in payload and therefore size") to be delivered over ten years. The first airships would be assembled and tested in Britain, with a gradual transference of production to Venezuela. A family of five airship types was proposed: Type A: payload Type B: payload Type C: payload Type D: payload Type E: payload The first airship (later to be designated the AD500) was to be of Type B. Night-time advertising flights would recoup the ship's cost, allowing it to be used by day in experiments supplying isolated communities in Venezuela's interior The AD500 The rollout of the first ship was delayed, mainly by certification problems (certification required the Civil Aviation Authority to write a set of airworthiness requirements for airships, something that took six months) but also by factors including a change of envelope supplier and revision of the engine and propeller design. The AD500, as it was by then known, first flew from Cardington on 3 February 1979. The AD500 was "a new-generation airship making use of advanced materials and technology." It was long and contained of helium. Materials used in the ship included thin single-ply polyester, coated with titanium dioxide-doped polyurethane, for the envelope; Kevlar for the cables suspending the gondola from the top of the envelope; a Kevlar nosecone moulded in the same manner as glass-reinforced plastic; and a gondola moulded by Vickers–Slingsby from Kevlar-reinforced plastic. Other innovations featured in the AD500 included simplified controls and thrust vectoring — an old airship idea revived — via inboard-mounted Porsche engines driving vectoring ducted fans. Unfortunately, on 8 March 1979, the month-old AD500 was seriously damaged when the nosecone failed while the ship was moored in high winds. Aerovision subsequently withdrew its financial